


Ruffled Feathers

by iamtheoneinthehole



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: rt hybrid!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-23
Updated: 2014-03-23
Packaged: 2018-01-16 16:31:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1354129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamtheoneinthehole/pseuds/iamtheoneinthehole
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Originally prompted to 'coolasdicks'; Think you can write a RT Hybrid!AU fic where Gavin hates how his feathers puff out through his shirts and hoodies and the guys tease him about it to the point where it gets to him and he plucks most of them off of himself? Sorry its super long.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ruffled Feathers

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks once again to 'coolasdicks' for letting me adopt this prompt, I have a real weakness (obsession) when it comes to RT Hybrid!AU so this prompt was amazing to write. And to the original prompter, wherever you may be, I hope I did your fabulous prompt the justice it deserves!

Gavin Free bloody hated his feathers sometimes. Sure they looked pretty top when he had them spread out at their full wing span, and they did play a pretty essential part in his ability to fly (which he could often be found making use of on his rare days off; swooping and diving around their garden which they'd made sure was attached to the place when he and his boyfriends had first moved in together just for this purpose. Once he'd even tried to take Michael flying with him... which probably hadn't been one of Gavin's best ideas in the end as the redhead had ended up digging his claws painfully into the Brit's shoulder for the duration of the flight while he half yelled, half screamed, at Gavin to 'fucking put him down'... it'd taken a whole week to get Michael to talk to him after that), so he figured they did have their perks but, in an office as small as the one he shared with his boyfriends, it wasn't as if there was the space for his full wing span, let alone flying... unless of course he wanted to knock stuff over all the time or smack one of his boyfriends in the face with his wings...

So he was forced to keep his feathers to himself around the office, just like Jack or Michael would keep their tails to themselves, or Ray his ears, but that was a thing that was easier said than done in Gavin's case since, unlike with his boyfriend's tails and ears, there wasn't exactly an elegant solution for dressing around his wings and, in the end, because of that there were always some of his dumb feathers poking out of the top of whatever hoodie or shirt he'd decided to don that day.

And it looked bloody ridiculous.

Gavin had always known that, as a kid he'd been incredibly self-conscious about it since the other kids at school had teased him about it, some of them even tugging on the stray feathers they could see poking out of the top of his shirts sometimes... But then he'd made friends with Dan who'd then started snarling at those kids whenever they picked on him and since no one really wanted to mess with a wolf hybrid, they'd eventually backed off. And, with time, and Dan's continued friendship, Gavin had found the insecurities had begun to fade away a little...

But then he'd started working for Achievement Hunter and the teasing had started up again and of course a part of Gavin knew that none of his coworkers actually meant it, not like those kids had. Roosterteeth was an all inclusive, all accepting company after all and kind of revolutionary really because of that. They had more hybrids employed within their company than any other business in the whole of Austin, a factor Gavin imagined was probably helped by the large percentage of hybrids who'd been involved in founding the company in the first place.

And the best part was that it wasn't even one of those hybrid-only companies that'd begun to crop up in some places as certain hybrids who'd been treated badly by humans had begun to develop prejudices against them that were just as bad as the ones Gavin had faced from students and teachers alike as a kid. Roosterteeth just accepted everyone. If you were good at your job, that was what mattered and Gavin had always loved that about working here.

So he knew, deep down, that they didn't mean it when they teased him about his feathers and how dumb they looked when they got all ruffled up under his collar but... all the same, the words hit a little too close to his own residual insecurities and, as time went by and the teasing continued, he found it was getting to him more and more because, while they might not mean it, it didn't mean that Gavin didn't agree with what they were saying...

Hearing it from his boyfriends was the worst though.

Because whenever he'd hear one of them tease him about them his feathers, pointing out the way they bulked out the back of his shirts or poked out around the collar, his insecurities about them would surge up in tenfold. Because growing up with Dan having his back as a kid had taught him not to put too much stock in what others thought of you, especially since the ones who said the mean things were usually the bullies and so their opinions didn't matter but... to hear that coming from the men he loved... well that was something else entirely.

And he told himself they didn't mean it, and had known it was probably true, but sometimes, on the days where Gavin was feeling particularly insecure, it was pretty easy to forget that fact.

\----

He hadn't realized, that anyone else had picked up on the fact that the comments were starting to bother him though, not until one day in the break room where Michael had made some teasing comment about them in front of Lindsay... only to have the redhead immediately jumped to his defense with a, "Michael please, like the ears poking out of your beanie there are any less inconspicuous."

"Screw you Linds my ears are damn adorable. Gavin's feathers just look dumb."

"...Okay Michael you've officially surpassed your dumbass quota for the day. Gavin I'm stealing you for the next few hours while ragequit here thinks about what he just said. Besides, you still owe me lunch for that time I kicked your ass at peggle during Geoff's game night." And with that she'd tugged him out of the room, leaving a confused Michael in their wake as they rounded a corner and begun to head towards her car.

"You know he doesn't mean it right? They all love you and your feathers, they're just being idiots as always and not realizing that what they say has consequences... They probably didn't get picked on so much in school but I did so... I get it. Just try to ignore them okay, or tell them if its really starting to bother you and I'm sure they'll ease off."

He'd half-smiled at that, murmuring a quick thanks as he'd slid into the passenger seat and she'd began to drive them in the direction of a new little coffee shop that'd just opened not too far from the office, chattering with him all the way about some new plotline in RWBY that Gavin wasn't really meant to know about (but she wouldn't tell if he wouldn't) and Gavin had found himself relaxing a little in her presence as, for a moment, he forgot about the niggling insecurities in the back of his head that never really seemed to go away these days...

Of course, later, Michael had confronted him about the incident in the break room and, for a moment, he'd considered taking Lindsay's advice and just telling them... But he hadn't wanted to make a huge fuss over something that wasn't really that important to anyone but him so he'd played it off as nothing and, eventually, the redhead had seemed to let it go.

And before the day was out, his boyfriends were back to teasing him about his feathers while Gavin wondered whether or not he should've taken Lindsay's advice after all...

\----

Eventually his insecurities had gotten to be too much for him to ignore anymore. The teasing was a near constant factor around the Achievement Hunter office at this point, or at least it seemed that way to the Brit, and it'd gotten to the point where he found couldn't really handle it anymore... And so a few weeks after Lindsay had stuck up for him in that break room, Gavin found himself in front of the bathroom mirror, razor in hand as he tried to talk himself up to going through with the plan he'd made earlier.

His boys were still at the office, working, but after lunch he'd feigned illness, apparently convincingly enough given that Burnie had taken one look at him and just told him to take the rest of the day off and get some rest so he wasn't dead for the podcast tomorrow. He'd quickly packed his bag, saying a quick goodbye to his boyfriends, who were all caught up in various stages of editing footage, before he'd headed back to the apartment they'd all been sharing for months now...

And now here he was, in front of the mirror with a bloody razor, and trying to convince himself to do something... though whether it was to put the razor down and walk away, or to just get on with it already, Gavin wasn't quite sure. Eventually, he'd rested a shaky hand on the edge of one of his wings and had begun to slice...

An hour, a sink full of bloodied feathers and a series of pained noises (that made him glad he'd decided to do this when the others were out because there's no way they wouldn't have noticed this) and he'd finally cleared away enough of them that when he shoved on his hoodie, none of the few remaining feathers poked out of the top. Which made it that much easier to hide them from the teasing comments his boyfriends seemed so prone to making when it came to his wings.

And it'd worked. The teasing stopped and Gavin finally started to feel a little more comfortable in his own skin again as the jokes shifted back to things like the Brit making dumb choices in video games. And Gavin had never exactly minded being called an idiot. He guessed it probably helped a little that being the office dumbass was the persona he'd built himself, not something about himself that he had little to no control over like his feathers...

But now he'd found a way to control them and he fully intended to put it to good use in future given the positive effects it seemed to be having so far... the only problem the solution did present though was hiding his methods from his boyfriends.

\----

The first time one of them had almost found out was later on that day when he and Michael had been making out on Ryan's couch in the Achievement Hunter office like bloody teenagers (technically they were meant to be getting ready to film immersion but... Burnie was, apparently, running a little late so in the meantime they'd found other ways to 'entertain' themselves) when suddenly the redhead's hands had pressed a little too tightly against his still tender wings and Gavin had pulled back with a wince, immediately alerting Michael to the fact that something was wrong.

And Gavin had babbled out some long, rambly and probably completely unrealistic excuse (based on the looks Michael was giving him as he did) but, thankfully, Burnie had chosen that moment to walk in and tell them to get their asses off the couch and down to where they were filming because everyone was waiting for them.

And Gavin had been quick to take that excuse, bolting off the couch and out of the Achievement Hunter office door before his boyfriend had the chance to ask him any more questions that he didn't have a good answer for. Thankfully it'd worked and by the time they were done with filming that day, the redhead seemed to have forgotten all about what'd happened earlier. Then again, they'd both been too exhausted to do anything other than collapse really when they'd gotten back from filming that day, curling up on the couch together as Michael let out a contented hum (that the redhead maintained wasn't a purr, whatever his asshole boyfriends said, but absolutely bloody was) as Gavin idly carded his hands idly through the man's hair.

\----

The next time his boyfriends had almost figured it out was the next day at the office when Ryan had rested a hand on the Brit's shoulder to get his attention as he'd asked him something about the latest Let's Play they'd filmed, his fingers brushing against the still tender skin around his wings, and the Brit hadn't quite been able to keep himself from letting out a soft sort of pained noise in response. A few moments later found him internally cursing the fact that half of his boyfriends happened to have super-human hearing abilities as Ryan's expression had immediately gone from one of light amusement to concern, both Jack and Geoff spinning in their chairs to level the Brit with concerned looks of their own as Ryan had asked if he was okay.

Which had, naturally, managed to grab Ray and Michael's attention and suddenly all of his boyfriends were staring at him with looks ranging from confusion to concern as Gavin mumbled some excuse about still being a little sore from Immersion. Thankfully, his boyfriends seemed to have believed that as they'd all turned back to their computers a few moments later leaving Ryan to ask him the question he'd been trying to ask the Brit before.

Gavin knew Geoff hadn't been as convinced as the rest of their boyfriends though, probably because the man had known Gavin the longest out of any of them and, because of that, knew how to spot when the Brit was lying a mile away... And the look that he was giving the Brit right now clearly stated that this conversation about whatever was really going on here wasn't over.

\----

After that there'd been other incidents when Gavin suddenly seemed reluctant to take off his shirt around his boyfriends, or where the Brit had been tackled to the ground in the Achievement Hunter office one day only to stay on the ground for a good few minutes afterwards, obviously in pain, but adamantly refusing to let anyone take a look under his shirt to assess whatever injuries he was obviously suffering from. There'd been attempted parkouring with Ray gone wrong and the reprise of Team Lads Action News Team and more filming for Immersion and the fact that Brit had suddenly developed a 'kink' for mostly clothed sex and he knew by this point that all of his boyfriends knew something was going on, and that they'd find out sooner or later, but all the same he wasn't ready for them to know just yet because the last thing he wanted them to do was treat him like he was fragile or broken because he had these insecurities.

And so they'd continued in some strange sort of stalemate until one day he'd arrived home from work only to find his boyfriends gathered around the kitchen table... the same kitchen table that they barely ever used because it was easier just to lounge around when they ate and it'd always been there more for decoration than anything... so the fact that his boyfriends were putting it to use had immediately set off alarm bells in the Brit's head.

And then they'd turned to face him and he'd seen  _that_  look in Geoff's eyes and had _known_ ; this was a bloody intervention.

It was a method they'd used before in their relationship, mostly to troubleshoot Ray's insecurities when they'd first started their relationship since going from single to suddenly dating five men was a pretty big jump and at least one of them was bound to have some issues adjusting to that at first and, for a while, it'd been Ray who'd struggled, convinced that he wasn't good enough for his boys until they'd proven otherwise.

They'd used it again when Geoff had been told by the doctors that he had to cut down on his alcohol intake, making sure the man knew he had their support and their love and convincing him to give restraint a try because the man's drinking habits were beginning to impact on his health and none of them had wanted to deal with the possibility of the man's life becoming endangered if he hadn't cut down on his intake.

They'd used it a third time when Michael had shut them out a little, shortly after receiving a less than enthusiastic reception from his family when he'd come out to them. Michael had been one of those rare cases of a hybrid born to human parents (they'd always figured it was some kind of recessive gene that the redhead must've inherited from generations back) and, because of the type of people they'd been, they'd always looked down on their son for that. Like being a hybrid made him a lesser person somehow... and apparently, being a gay hybrid had been the final straw. To be honest, they'd all been glad to see the back of the redhead's parents in the end... but it'd still been a struggle for the man at first as he'd adapted to a life without them and, eventually, intervention had become necessary to close the sudden rift that'd begun to form between them.

He, Jack and Ryan, however, had never needed an intervention so far, the latter two men both comfortable enough within their own skin not to have any real serious insecurities in regard to where they stood within their relationship and lucky enough to have fairly neutral parents when it came to the six's, perhaps a little unconventional, relationship and, up until this point, Gavin had always been convincing enough at faking the same confidence in himself that no one in their relationship had ever thought to set up one of these things for him...

Apparently, somewhere along the line, he'd become a lot less convincing...

The intervention had ended up being a long and painful experience and Gavin could feel guilt surge up and twist unpleasantly within his gut as he realized how much his recent actions seemed to have been affecting his boyfriends to the point that they were all convinced he was pulling away from them, just like Michael had been before after the incident with his parents...

And it'd been one of Gavin Free's lowest moments, perhaps in his whole existence, when he'd looked into the eyes of the men he loved, men who were so obviously concerned about him right now, and had lied through his teeth before making a quick getaway with the excuse of wanting to take a shower.

\----

Finally out of the prying, concerned, eyes of his boyfriends, Gavin stripped off his shirt to assess the state of his wings, setting the water of the shower running so as not to alert his boyfriends to the fact that anything was amiss.

He'd frowned as he'd noticed the soft, downy, feathers beginning to grow back in patches along his wings, running his fingers over those feathers for a moment and making sure not to take note of the scars littered around them from the various cuts he'd made over the last few weeks, as he'd tried to figure out whether or not he'd have time to deal with them before one of his boyfriends came to check on him...

He'd just grabbed the razor when Geoff barged in, clearly ready to call him out on the bullshit he'd offered before as an explanation for his behavior, the man stopping in the door as he took in the sight of Gavin's mangled wings, the scars littering the areas where feathers should be and the razor in the Brit's hand... he knew the moment the pieces clicked together in Geoff's mind, the man's sudden sharp intake of breath alerting Jack and Ryan to the fact that something was wrong and before he'd known it, all of his boyfriends had been stood outside the bathroom with looks varying from shock to something raw and almost pained...

He'd been surprised, but relieved, to see no pity in the men's eyes though and that in itself had been enough to convince him to agree to it when Geoff said that he thought it was about goddamn time Gavin told them what was really going on here.

\----

In the end it'd taken a good five minutes of Ray gently squeezing his hand as he and the others all patiently waited for Gavin to speak before the Brit had been able to admit to the insecurities he had about his feathers and how it'd all spiraled downhill to the point that he'd resolved to do something about them and the guilt in the air was almost tangible when his boys had figured out it'd been their teasing that'd tipped the balance into that downward spiral...

By the time Gavin had been done explaining, Jack's eyes were a little shinny, Michael had fallen unnaturally silent and both Ray and Ryan had looked a little shell shocked... so it'd been Geoff that'd been the first to speak. "So apparently we've been wrong to be calling you dumb all this time Gav, turns out we're the fucking idiots."

The Brit had been about to protest that, pointing out that none of this was any of their faults but his, but Ray had gotten in there first, "Geoff's right, we've been really dumb about this... Vav we love your feathers."

"And they're actually kind of adorable when they get all ruffled up by your shirts." Ryan chimed in, "We've all kind of missed seeing that."

"Plus, they're all kinds of fucking gorgeous when you use them to fly." Michael had added, eyes a little distant for a moment as if he were picturing the Brit in flight.

"Most importantly Gavin, they're a part of you. So how could we not love them?" Jack had finished, his tone soft as he'd tentatively reached out to lightly trace his fingers along the downy feathers that'd started to grow along the arches of his wings, the man making sure he had Gavin's permission before he'd begun to gently smooth his hands along the Brits wings and with that it was as if the dam that'd been holding in all of his insecurities and anxieties about his wings suddenly burst and before he knew it he was sobbing into Geoff's shoulder as the gent rocked him gently in his arms, Ray's hand still holding his as Jack's continued to smooth gently through his feathers and Ryan and Michael began to murmur soft reassurances until the combined efforts of his boyfriends finally soothed him enough to pull back from Geoff's embrace.

The first thing he'd done after that was hand over the razor to the gent, the significance of that action not lost on any of his boys as he noted their obvious relief as he'd done so. And the rest of that evening has been a mess of apologies and murmured praises into the Brit's skin as his boys had done all they could to prove that he'd made the right choice by doing that.

\----

It wasn't as if talking about it made his insecurities vanish overnight. He still frowned whenever he caught sight of his new feathers poking out from the edges of his shirts (or the hoodies that he donned on the days when he was feeling particularly self-conscious) and would shy away a little from a conversation whenever someone happened to bring them up but with time, and a few stern words from Geoff with certain other people around the office who'd been making the feather jokes (about how they really weren't that fucking funny and if he ever heard anyone making one in his presence again, they'd be discovering exactly why it was a bad idea to fuck with a ram hybrid), Gavin found it started to get easier.

He began to let his feathers show a little more often, gradually building up the nerve to allow Jack to groom them again (since he was the only one of his boyfriends who usually had the patience for it), one time he even got talked into showing off his wingspan during an rt life video (once the feathers had all grown back) and despite his slight discomfort with the situation, his boyfriends' reactions when they'd entered the room to see him shirtless and wings stretching out as if he were about to take flight had been enough to help him power through his insecurities, even allowing them to post the video on the Roosterteeth site.

Of course this didn't mean there weren't days that he wanted to steal back the razor from his boyfriends and slice away at the feathers that were growing fuller and healthier looking by the day, but they became less and less frequent. And whenever he did one of his bad days, one of his boyfriends would be there in seconds, pulling the Brit into their arms and murmuring comforting words as they smoothed their hands gently over his wings, not silencing the dark thoughts but... muffling them a little.

And at the end of the day they'd drive him home and curl up next to him on the bed and would stay up and talk with him about anything and everything, answering every dumb question the Brit's tired mind could thin of, talking about future Let's Plays or even their future together. And the talking would continue until Gavin's eyes suddenly felt heavy and he'd drift off, safe in the cocoon of warmth his boyfriends had created for him.

It wasn't as if his insecurities vanished overnight, but it was a start.


End file.
